I only have two things to say 1 I like the boss rush because it’s shows just how far you’ve come from the start. And 2 you can cheese the final boss in MM3 with search snake if you launch it into the hole one top of gammas head other than that I agree with you on everything else.
18:50 Dude, the Boss Rush is my FAVORITE part of every Mega Man game! It's like giving the Robot Masters one last chance to take a bow before the curtain call that is Dr. Wily!
Love seeing new blood in the classic fandom! 3 is my least favorite despite loving Proto Man and the slide, but one helpful thing for any revisits is knowing that Search Snake also can defeat the final boss ;) I used to love the boss rushes so it feels weird seeing the dislike for them; I always felt like it was either a victory lap or an opportunity to test your mettle with bosses u may not have given a fair shot initially. The classic series definitely does have an issue with padding though, and I see how mandatory boss rushes don't help with that
Honestly I don't mind the boss rush as much as others may, even if it could be done better (like how mega Man X1 does it) but I tended to use the boss rush to learn robot master weaknesses.
MM1 and X1 bosses being strewn thru levels is ok but honestly I'd like to see the concept evolve more. If fighting 8 bosses you've already beaten in succession is a test of mastery, and 8 vs 1 would be overkill, what if bosses tag-teamed in rematches? There are plenty of ways to do it, I'm fond of the Gravity Circuit interpretation as well
20:15 I just booted up the Legacy Collection on steam, and no if you change the version of the game to the US version, it gives you the difficulty option in Megaman 2. You can pick which version you want to play as either Megaman or Rockman. So you do have an option in the legacy collection version, you just have to pick the version of the rom that had it.
Oddly enough, I actually think Mega Man 3 is my favorite in the trilogy… yes, even better than 2. I know the game was unfinished and a mess, but even some unfinished games have their charm to it. MM3’s length wasn’t that long, and hell, I would say that the length is understandable with it being the last in the trilogy AND being a game changer in the Mega Man series (in terms of story and gameplay). I will agree that Mega Man 2 had more of a legacy, but I kinda got tired after the first two Wily Castle Stages (obviously because of the Crash Bomb boss, and because of the boss rush), but also because of how… odd the level design can be.. and by that I mean it felt like it was throwing out random stuff without any rhyme or reason (the Sniper Joe part in Wily Castle 3 is the big example of that). either way, great video on these games!
21:24 I love MM2, but MM3 is superior. The music in 3 is beyond phenomenal and jazzy as hell, especially the epic opening theme, Shadow Man’s stage theme, and the last boss theme. The slide is awesome. Rush is awesome. Amazing game.
I'm going to say this right now: in Mega Man 3, Rush Marine is useless, because Rush Jet can do everything that Rush Marine can do, but better. On top of that, when you jump off Rush Jet, he stops consuming energy!
@@GottaBeFrank on some ill shit! And i think the devs realized that, because he ain't been the same since! 😭 (Not counting the shoot-em-up sections in episode 8)
The best part of Megaman 1 is the epic cheese strat to get rig of their invincibility frames during the pause menu so effectively pause after shooting as the attack intercepts and watch as they effectively die cause boss weapons don’t despawn after contact meaning spam pause to kill and it gets tricky only with Fire man and Wily cause Fire man if two fast won’t do anything and two slow it will move away from him wily is just cause how many sprites there are after his first phase is killed its too broken and still lives in Megaman 2 (I also may regret all knowing this cause I failed it too many times)
I hate that fight, but I learned how to beat it without using the pause trick. Just make sure you're not suffering from input lag if you go that route.
I also like the fight by itself, learning how to dodge the flying pieces was kind of fun. I think the part that makes it irritating is how much practice it requires in a game where getting a game over sends you to the beginning of the level, and it especially sucks if you never figured out the ice beam can freeze the flame towers at the entrance. I just used a save state to practice over and over until I was comfortable going back to the beginning and beating it legitimately.
Such a refreshing take on my favorite series. I’m extremely biased, but enjoyed hearing a fresh opinion from a newcomer. 2 was my first and my favorite. I completely agree with your assessment on 3, which I’m often criticized for. I’m looking forward to seeing the next one. Thanks!
Just finished rewatching it, really surprised you didn't like 3, but your reasoning is very understandable. It's great you were able to get into the series despite the flaws of the first three games.
I don't find the Doc Robot stages to be bad but the Doc Robots themselves are atrocious! Even though they take the powers of Mega Man 2's Robot Masters, they do not have the same AI as them. The worst Doc Robot would have to be the Wood Man variant. The hitboxes on the leaves are absolutely abysmal. Also, Spark Shock is the worst weapon in Mega Man 3. It stuns enemies in place but unlike Mega Man 1, you cannot pause the game to switch to another weapon while they're stunned! Finally, you do not have to guess which clone Mega Man is the real one. The real one has a slower spawn animation than the rest.
Top Spin was actually good outside of Shadow Man, the enemies it can hurt it 1 shots, or 2 /3 shot the few other bosses hurtable by it. Such as those gorillas that jump down at you, become non threats if you have the top spin.
Top Spin is pretty awful, wydm. You can't use it while jumping towards enemies because you get pushed back, so is worthless vs the parachute enemies in shadow man. Not to mention that if you are in invincibility state, the weapon gets drained after ONE use, and you have to make contact with enemies to use it.
8:16 I'll be honest, I never had a problem with the Yoku Blocks because I know how to watch their patterns. They only start getting _bad_ by Mega Man 4, and by then, they're restricted to endgame, and made ridiculous, compared to the first 3 games. In fact, the only time I got tripped up was near the end of Heat Man's stage.
I never bothered with them in Heat Man's stage. Probably because I saw a MM2 race before actually playing the game. It wasn't for any tricks or anything. I just never really saw the game up to that point. As for the other areas with Yoku Blocks. I couldn't warm up to them, even if I was cremated with them.
@@GottaBeFrank i understand your complaints about Ice Man's stage, but i can tolerate everything until i get to those damned rng eyeball platforms, at which point i whip out the magnet beam and say "fuck that noise."
3:41 80% of gamelocalizations back then in a nutshell. They just looked at the japanese manual and thought:"Nah, we don't need to translate this." or translated it poorly. Heck, appearently the megaman series never cut itself loose from that nonsense. Which is why it later more and more becomes a jumbled mess of unreadable dialogue.
Yeah it sucks that they would not translate certain stuff. Castlevania for example has an awesome story with evil Witchcraft and Christ’s power weakening every 100 years. At least Mega Man’s translations after the first game are accurate.
I found the Leaf Shield particularly useful for the ladder and moving platform segments in the stages where there's a lot of homing enemies, such as Crash Man. But cool to see newer videos covering these classics! And it is also fun to run into another fellow soul who had a similar experience with and observations about Mega Man 3 to me, I always feel outspoken on those points. I'm just finding your content for the first time, but if you haven't already, you should really check out Rockman World 4 and World 5 at some point, they are peak Classic series titles that all Mega Man enjoyers need to play. I'd personally put World 4 right next to Mega Man 2 in terms of design, but it feels so much more polished it really sings to me. And seeing that you are a Mega Man X enjoyer, I think you'd appreciate World 4 for the elements it brought to the table that were integrated into X1 and Mega Man 7.
8:24 now let me tell you why I despise *_this_* section. Not only can those floating platforms shoot at you, they move in completely random patterns, and sometimes, they glitch out, causing you to get hit by, and fall through them, falling to your death! When you get to this section, without the magnet beam. It is essential to your survival here.
Newbie to the channel, here because of Mega Man. XP Ended up watching some videos out of order, so I was interested to hear you take on the first three games. Now for my own unsolicited opinions: 01) As long as you can generally enjoy "retro games", I think all three of these are good. *Not great,* but _good._ 02) No one should worry about playing on original hardware; the Legacy Collection releases of these three are probably better than those. 03) For that matter, embrace the luxuries of modern re-releases, but remember to use them to _learn,_ *not* to _cheese._ 04) The Pause Glitch (Original MM), Super Jump (MM3), Screen Freeze (MM3), and Zombie Mega Man (MM3), along with Passwords in MM2 and MM3, helped kids like me "get good", because eventually, we wanted to try and beat the games _without_ them. ;) 05) My personal favorite is Classic series game is Mega Man 3 *but* that's due to nostalgia on my part. It won't apply to the vast majority of people. 06) Out of these three, though, I still believe Mega Man 3 to be better, for reasons I'll explain. 07) *Mega Man **_needs_** his slide!* I can live without the Charge Shot, but Mega Man was meant to slide. 08) Weapon balance is poor in all three games... 09) ...while being broken in your favor is better than the opposite, it should still be seen as a flaw (Metal Blade, Rush Jet). 10) Some boss weapons are junk *but* it is good to learn the game enough to know which those are, versus which are just hard to learn. 11) Example of the above: The Spark Shot is the _worst_ weapon in MM3; a worse version of the Ice Slasher, without the excuses of the Top Spin (first melee attack) or Gemini Laser (too taxing on the console). 12) Rematches with the Robot Masters is a _feature,_ not a flaw; this is so you can appreciate fighting them with your *full* arsenal and presumably polished Skills. 13) None of them do the rematches right. The original Mega Man does it worst; if you think the teleport room is padding, so is slapping extra boss rooms in the middle of the Stage. XP 14) Done right, you get the Teleporter Room approach, but with both a large Health and Energy refill between tries. Also, the RMs staying beaten unless you have to Continue. 15) Doc Robot/Doc Robot Stages; good idea, bad execution. Definitely slow the game down... but better than the Alien Hologram of Wily. 16) Snake Man's Stage is good; green is best color... but kidding aside, it is still a good Stage. One of the easier ones, IMO. 17) Speaking of difficulty, Mega Man 3 is only the "hardest" due to length. With in-game cheats (see Reason #04), it is the easiest! 18) Okay, hardest due to length *and* Doc Robot's hit box being larger than most (all?) of the Robot Masters he's mimicking. X-large Quick Man, and _without_ the Time Stopper. @_@ For as long as this list is, it really only scratches the surface. To properly explain, one needs to have the time to sit on the couch as friends, playing through these games. MM3 especially. Did you know that every boss is _slightly_ Weak to its own Weapon? Seven shots with a Robot Master's own Weapon kills them in MM3... something you could only experience through the Teleporter Room near the end. Final disclaimer; I know these are my opinions, and especially under an old video, no one cares. I just am that kind of person who spends this much time posting under a RU-vid video, I guess. XP
For Wily’s first machine in Mega Man 3, on the second phase, when he lowers himself, I just use Rush Jet. He doesn’t stand a chance. As for Gamma, the search snakes also work on the Wily head. I never knew the top spin worked until I read Jeff Rovin’s “How To Win At Nintendo Games Vol. 4”. Jeff’s books are good reads, as much for their humor as for their information.
It would be awesome to get a hold of those old Nintendo guide books. When I was really getting into gaming, it was all cheat code books from Dreamcast and PS2 games.
What pushed me away from this series is how some of the enemies are placed such that your shots will go over them, and yes I suck but sometimes the flying enemies were difficult to deal with And dodging things feels impossible at times, trying to do a no damage run would be insane And the robot masters were insane too yeah But this is a neat idea even so
YOU USED THE PAUSE TRICK FOR THE YELLOW DEVIL?!? Jk I don't blame you. Beating that thing (twice in one and three) was damn near torture. Although when I finally did beat it I was so elated, I can assuredly say it was the most intense natural high I've ever had. It taught me a lot about overcoming adversity,, but at the same time I now realize I'd never want to play a soulsborne game (despite loving them "From" afar ;)) The highs are stratospheric, but the blood, sweat, and tears required to reach that are too intense for me now. Yellow Devil part 1 & 2 were my all time video game challenges; I'm glad I experienced it, but don't want to do it again 🤣
I always love watching people who didn't grow up with these games, be critical of them. You just didn't play these games within the context of the times. I always feel tempted to say "Git Gud" because there is a learning curve to these games, that the older gamers have done already.
I prefer the first out of the first 3. When I was a kid in the days of trading Nintendo cartridges in the schoolyard, being able to score the original MegaMan was a huge triumph. I still treasure my original copy I eventually was able to buy.
22:11 more anyone notice it? Dr light's pc has a IBM's brand. I've never realize it before. The blue part of his pc where there are lot of lights shining.
Those moving platforms in Iceman/ Willy later on, aren't that bad... if they feel like being solid. Some times you just fall right through them, or are standing on them and fall. Just use the magnet beam, really reduces the chance of random-not-your-fault-deaths.
I beat MM1 a couple of years without knowing about the pause trick. But I did it with emulation so I used save states. How anyone beat this thing back in the day without either of those is beyond me.
For me, MM3 is the most overall fun game in the series! Has the best balance of great music & fun level design! And I think yer crazy, Snake Man's stage looks AWESOME imo! Love the textured looking rounded pipe like stage platforms, just looks cool!
Sparkman and Get Weapon from Megaman 3 are the best songs in the series and MM3 has the best OST in the series IMHO, but its such a close race. So many amazing tracks in all the games 🙂
Great videos and analysis. It's strange to think that even though there are SIX entries on the NES, the first half are so wonky, broken, and incomplete they really put over the latter three. I'm in the camp that thinks MM4-MM6 are the peak of the classic series on the NES, with MM5 being a slight step backward. MM4 and MM6 are timeless NES classics worthy of the undue praise MM2 has gotten for years, IMHO!
I had watched another RU-vidr that said something about they said megaman 3 was too short so the doc robot stages were added in. Also I never used the top spin on gamma, I always use the search snake
I like 2 fine enough but I don't know why it's the "must play" of the classics. 3, 4, and 5 were much more enjoyable games, 6 wasn't bad, my personal favorite being 4. 2 Had a few of those bs moments, especially that stupid room boss with the turrets that, requires you to have full crash ammo, in a level that doesn't really give you good spots to farm. So if you mess up at all, congrats you get to either game over yourself or spend 15 minutes over a ladder and spikes to get ammo back.
In Megaman 3 there was a trick with the Top Spin. If you were on rush you can fire a shot and pause and change to Top Spin, the bullet still on screen will now act like a Top Spin, makes the 3 Clones and Gamma fights much easier. You can technically do this with other weapons switching out of rush, but there really isn't a good use for it.
I never heard of that trick. The only ones I knew of were the super jump (and the invincibility that you can get with it) and early rush jet. I'll have to try that top spin trick.
17:02 I have taken your advice into consideration, but I elect to tackle Heat Man’s stage first without Item-2. But I also tend to go after Metal Man last. Maybe I’m just hardcore like that.
mega man 4 is the goat NES mega man game in my eyes. If you look at it with a critical eye and compare it to other titles, it clearly is the best of the NES mega man games IMHO.
The leaf shield is great for those bird bombs. Stand some distance away from the bomb, activate the shield, kill all the little birds, collect all the power ups and extra lives. Rinse, repeat, profit.
A thing I noticed is that the Ice Man platforms' shots shoot in the wrong direction. The right cannon shoots left and vice versa. IIRC both Yellow Devils have a fixed pattern when sending their blobs across screen one at a time. MM3's hologram Mega Man thing has a tell so you don't have to guess - the real one teleports in, while the fake ones just appear.
I know the middle is always the real one at first, but I never noticed a tell after that initial. I'll have to keep an eye for it next time I replay it.
I have actually beaten Yellow Devil in Mega Man 1, not only without using the pause trick, but without using the Elec weapon. I used the regular buster, getting just one hit per turn. Not as much damage, needing more precise timing and aim. But I did it.
MM2 and 3 were my childhood. My best achievement was beating both without dying and only using the Buster. I used Bubble and Snake on Wily though. Nowadays, I can barely beat a single level without dying. Modern gaming has changed me.
Love me some Mega Man 3, most folks from the era love it. I always liked it more than 2, rush being created, the doc robot stages, that was a big deal!
Getting used to them is really the key. I never owned the 2nd on original NES hardware, but I did own the 3rd and so I prefer it, if only because of how familiar I am with its particular quirks.
The Megaman series as a whole, is just an example of how game companies, do not learn from their mistakes, and fail the fandoms that they try to sell to, because there's just so much missed potential in between the main series games, and all the sub series that came after it, but Capcom's greed and competitiveness, is what doomed the franchise in the end since all the sub series ended up competing with itself, rather than strengthening the Megaman IP. The other unfortunate truth is that, not everyone can play the Megaman series, as most games are trial and error and actually require skill, and many casual gamers refuse to put up with that, which is why the pay to win practice has somewhat become the standard in the game industry, because it gives those lazy less skilled casuals, a means to just use their money in order to beat games, and while companies like this because it makes them money, actual true gamers hate this and will refuse to buy or play those types of games. I just wonder how Megaman might have changed, had Capcom not tried to milk the IP for all its worth, and instead of giving so many strict deadlines with poor budgets, actually allowed the devs to take their time and had been a little generous with the budgets, as Megaman 2 which is highly regarded as the best game on the NES, had been made in between breaks of other projects as the devs for Megaman 1, were really passionate about what they made with the first game, and they knew that they could make something much better, but did not have the time or funds and they still managed to make Megaman 2 so great.
11:58 you deal with these things by continuing to move forward and jumping ot the next platform. at just the right moment you shoot, and it'll destroy the enemy right as it appears. It renders them useless. Im not trying ot hassle you about this or anything, it is absolutely not obvious how you're supposed to deal with them. I only know it because i played so many times. I'm just sharing the strategy in case anyone is having trouble there.
It was, but it wasn't a very appealing thumbnail. The logo was a little tough to see and I like the roman numerals to show which games I'm talking about in the video. Might switch out the background to make it pop out.
I think the devs put top spin in for the boss killing weapon thinking no one in their right mind would use it and instead use search snake as it has the regular progression of damage on enemy weaknesses. But all of us leapt into reckless abandon spinning our hearts out as children.
@@skins4thewin year after, i replayed the first 6 (the ps1 versions), 1 is the weakest of them, 3 (if its the ps1 version with no slowdown) and 6 are now my favorites, but i will not hear megaman 10 slander
@@tivvy2vs21 lol then what were you talking about saying MM1 was ur fav? Why would u say that if u hadn't even tried the others? 😅 I would absolutely recommend MM4 for Gameboy, it's simply fantastic & the very best Megaman game for the Gameboy. The first 3 were pretty awful & lacked quality, due to I think them being developed by a different company. 4 was the first to truly be top notch quality & it is! Both the cutscenes, graphics & music are VERY impressive for a Gameboy game!
sounds like you didnt' get hit by the topman glitch that completely wipes out the topman energy when you fight shadowman, if you can't beat it without topman that is an instant game over
Or you can transfer the top spin into your lemons. RC up to face height, shoot twice, then switch to Top Spin before the bullets hit, and they'l hit him with Top Spin's damage!
Actually, maybe someone else already pointed this out, but it seems that the select button in megaman 1 resets invincibility frames, that's why every boss can potentially be killed by one shot of every special weapon, because most of them are piercing. It kinda works like the plasma beam (in super metroid) against crocomire. You are not supposed to have it, so he doesn't have a way to react to the plasma beam except getting infinite damage and causing him to instantly die. This works because crocomire has no invincibility frames, and cannot stop the plasma beam from piercing trough his sprite, every millisecond he is getting hit. Other bosses later in the game can be hurt by the plasma beam, but the piercing doesn't work on them, since they stop the shot after getting hit. in Megaman the bosses do get invincibility after getting hit every single time, but they do not make any weapon disappear on contact(not counting the mega buster), so you spam the select button to continously reset their hitbox to a non-invincible state.
@@davidthecommenter What do you mean with "It Just resets the timer"? The frames of invincibilty are on a timer, so It Is implied that resetting the frames resets the timer for invincibilty After a hit.
You can touch a part of the Wily stage 4 boss in Megaman 2 to conserve Crash Bomber energy. Megaman 3 is a good game despite it being rushed. The Top Spin feels incomplete. Yeah, Megaman 2 is better.
The Dragon boss was even more of a troll than the one weakness turrets. Because of sprite limitations, you are invisible the whole time and over a pit. Three little steps and doing dodges with no real way to keep track of position and I just wanted it over with.
The final stage in Mega Man 1 isn't really that bad. You can kill Ice Man without even moving. and Fire Man goes down if you know how to fight him in a weird way. Fireman is the biggest problem, really. I speedrun the game so ive gotten really good at it, but fire man can still take me out if im not careful.
That would require needing to know the weird way, which I'm assuming isn't exploiting the pause glitch. I guess if I knew about it, I would mention it. I still think 4 robot masters with no health, in case, is still a bit harsh.
3 was the 1st megaman game i beat, at 7 years old over 30 years ago. i hated revisiting needleman stage with the doc robots. the wily stages, i felt, were too easy.
@@GottaBeFrank i feel like 1 and 2 have way too many shit in the way of being fun, studying their design as in depth as you can, too much shit will be found 1 is a mess, the programming is mind boggling, one example? You mentioned in your video that those floating footholder section in ice man is hard because they are moving and shooting you at the same time, thats not why they suck They are just not done well, the physical property of those platforms are actually a magnet beam, so yes, you are basically standing on a moving magnet beam instead of a proper footholder, you can even bug it to make it visible, this also reinforces the problem with said footholders since the magnet beam vanishes sometimes when it goes up, this means that sometimes if the player jumps on said footholders when they are going up you can fall throught them and die. This + the fact aceleration is problematic in megaman 1, making it slippery by default, makes it even worse. Almost every stage and every boss in the game is extremely weirdly programmed which makes it extremely dull, you either know how to defeat a boss such as jumping constantly and shooting in fire man, or the 3 spots elecman shoot its elec beam in its arena or you ll have to kill them using their weakness. Most casual players will kill everything by using the weaknesses so they wont notice such things, actually blaming the only boss that is actually ok in terms of game design in the whole game (The yellow devil) Megaman 2 has even more design issues than 1 sometimes, specially since it wastes so much screens in its levels and has so many problems with its damage tables and enemy placements (wily stages such as wily 4 being specially guilty of it) Megaman 3 has some issues but for the most part is the one that most got its game design right out of every game in the NES, exception being maybe megaman 4, but i still found 3's stronger aspects to make it overall better.
the 4 robot masters with using their weaknesses is not THAT hard. granted i do beat yeloow devil without select, i seem to have a harder time with copy rockman than you do lol
I found them to be a waste of time. On the first playthrough, it's neat to have all the weaknesses. It becomes mindless on repeat playthroughs since you'd probably have a route to begin with. I'd rather have another unique level and boss fight.
I was gonna say something like "aw I like mm3" but the thing is I literally don't play video games I just like how some comic writers and music artists have adapted that game's storyline. Really goes to show you something, probably. Anyway good video 👍
Honestly, the only reason you think that 2's soundtrack is better than 3 is because you've heard it more. 3 is better, in every measurable way, including the soundtrack.